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Go's New Brand

blog.golang.org

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Re: Go's New Brand

#201

Post by doctorstupid »

remir wrote: post #139
hazeii wrote: post #31

Perhaps this won't be a popular sentiment, but since when did programming languages need brand identity?

Everything is about impression and perception. For example, I have observed that people treat me more seriously when I dress better than with the typical "jeans+tshirt" combo. Now, we can say this is superficial bullshit, but at the end of the day, the way you dress influence people's perception of you. So in my opinion, Go's new branding give it a more "serious" image and perhaps people unfamiliar with the language…

In this case the cliché brand identity is the jeans and t-shirt combo. Does hip branding not make a language seem juvenile? You talk about serious image, but surely you can't find more serious languages than those devoid of branding, like C and Lisp.

Re: Go's New Brand

#202

Post by dsl »

signal11 wrote: post #126
zokier wrote: post #34

This makes me incredibly (to me) sad. The identity is so completely soulless, and the logo is the opposite of timeless, trying to grasp currently oh so hip and pop retro aesthetic. Nevermind that the retro logo and super sleek modern visual identity seems to clash with each other, both are abandoning the playfulness that was so prevalent before, most clearly evident in the various Go gopher illustrations. And its not…

Look at it this way, Google's making a commercial statement with this, that they think Go is important enough for them to brand . It's like Duke and Java -- Duke still exists as a mascot. I suspect the gopher will be around for a long time to come. If anything this is a harbinger of Go becoming more mainstream than it is already (think TIOBE top-10).

No, this all started with an email to UX/design of "I want a professionally designed slide deck for this talk I am giving" and they sent it off to an agency.

There is no way self respecting Googlers were involved in this shit show.

Re: Go's New Brand

#203

Post by dsl »

21 wrote: post #86

Reading the comments here makes it clear why most programmers should stay away from design. I've programmed for 20 years now, but that stupid gopher and the way it was everywhere was a serious put off for me on giving Go a look. Nerdy AF. Good riddance. I wonder if there was a huge internal battle between the brand savvy people which realized how terrible the gopher was, and the Go creators. Guys, don't be so stereot…

> makes it clear why most programmers should stay away from design.

Part of being a good designer is understanding the audience you are designing for. They didn't do that.

Re: Go's New Brand

#204

Post by fermienrico »

FridgeSeal wrote: post #148
juliangoldsmith wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd agree here. It's like they tried to make the new branding as generic as they possibly could. I liked the simple, basic site that Go has always used. It seems inevitable that they'll redo the site, to include megabytes of JavaScript for features that nobody wants, like hijacked scrolling. (The site[0] for the design agency they talk about loads about 3 MB. Almost none of it is images. The site loads all that to di…

Jesus christ that site is bad. It's like they tried to tick every box in the "obnoxious and annoying" category: * It's inexplicably large * It's slow af * Scroll hijacking * back button hijacking * There's elements that appear when I scroll, but they disappear so you don't actually appear to be able to look them any more than in passing. (Notably the colourful logos for Google and Priceline). * Did I mention it's slo…

I am so utterly infuriated at their incompetence. How could they not see these obvious points? I hope they're reading because they ruined the face of an otherwise, very cool programming language project in our times.

Re: Go's New Brand

#206

Post by fermienrico »

shiado wrote: post #76

I know it is petty and irrational but I judge the quality of a software project by how boring it looks, where boringness is better. The more it looks like some university professor's web 0.1 hand-coded HTML project circa 1993 the better. Just look at this sexy boring website, it tells you that things are going to work perfectly with no bullshit or corporate-speak included. https://gcc.gnu.org/

I totally agree, the more boring, the better. Like Berkshire Hathway's website [1]. This is especially true for things like investment firms and programming languages. The fact that they don't spend any ounce of time/resources on branding itself is a cool brand. They don't need it and they don't give a shit.

Now, I do not endorse a complete neglect for cohesiveness and consistency. In the case of Go, it has an interesting interplay between sophistication and fun - this was a perfect opportunity to make an xkcd style cartoony brand that conveyed both simultaneously. Instead what we got is an infuriating bullshit that looks like one of those stock logo/branding templates I can buy for $19.95. Sigh.

[1] http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

Re: Go's New Brand

#207

Post by [deleted] »

zokier wrote: post #34

This makes me incredibly (to me) sad. The identity is so completely soulless, and the logo is the opposite of timeless, trying to grasp currently oh so hip and pop retro aesthetic. Nevermind that the retro logo and super sleek modern visual identity seems to clash with each other, both are abandoning the playfulness that was so prevalent before, most clearly evident in the various Go gopher illustrations. And its not…

[deleted]

Re: Go's New Brand

#208

Post by gempir »

21 wrote: post #86

Reading the comments here makes it clear why most programmers should stay away from design. I've programmed for 20 years now, but that stupid gopher and the way it was everywhere was a serious put off for me on giving Go a look. Nerdy AF. Good riddance. I wonder if there was a huge internal battle between the brand savvy people which realized how terrible the gopher was, and the Go creators. Guys, don't be so stereot…

The way you express it is a bit problematic and is going to cause a lot of angry replies but I agree. Go looks a bit out place in the corporate World. Like you present your boss a new plan for your project and it's supposed to use Go. You put in the gopher and the boss is gonna take you less seriously directly.

The new logo is good and fit for enterprise

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